Grainger survey: MRO buyers not ready to abandon channel

By Staff -- Purchasing, 5/18/2000

No one channel best serves all types of businesses. That's one finding of results of the fourth annual survey of MRO purchasing decision-makers by W.W. Grainger. The ability of distributors to make multiple channels available and to use the Internet as a purchasing vehicle is key to satisfying needs of a variety of unique buying preferences.

Undeniably the Internet is becoming a preferred channel for many companies. Survey results reveal that use of the Internet to purchase MRO supplies doubled in 1999. What's more, this figure understates actual use of the Internet for business purposes: Thirty-nine percent of non-Internet purchasers (and 66% of large companies) say they use the Internet to collect product information.

Despite these trends, a snapshot of the MRO buyer shows that across all segments, businesses have not abandoned other channels and most are using a variety of purchasing methods.

The telephone is still the preferred method of ordering MRO supplies among all companies; 85% use the phone and 54% prefer it. Medium-sized companies (100-499 employees) show the most preference for using the phone (65%). Second in ordering preference, large companies (those with 500+ employees) more than others prefer to use the fax (21%) or the Internet (11%). Small companies (10-99 employees) more than medium or large companies prefer to order during visits from an MRO supplier (13%). All other ordering preferences are about equal among all three groups.

Across industries, companies in construction are more likely than those in manufacturing, transportation/communications/utilities, and institutional services to visit an MRO supplier's local branch. Manufacturers are more apt to order by phone, fax, or visits from an MRO supplier than are the other industry groups.

"What these figures say is that customers have unique MRO buying needs and preferences," says Wes Clark, group president, Grainger. "We know that most companies use a combination of methods, and that distributors need to provide customers with a breadth of options. The Internet is quickly becoming a preferred channel because of the cost and time savings it offers, but we need to be wherever customers are."